Feeling the Aster?
by My Vantilene
Summary: He knew Artemis going to his school would be a problem... Rated T because it makes me feel cooler, and Genre 2 is Western because...Actually I don't know why...


Disclaimer: You mean you didn't get my e-mail? *GASP*

It was a mistake. A flat out, mistake. And an unprofessional one at that. He was beyond dead. Batman was going to kill him, tan his hyde, make a bear rug out of him and mount his head on top of his fireplace. Maybe Jason would be meeting Bruce sooner than anticipated…

All because of one mistake. An accident. Honestly, that's what it was. He was in English class with Mrs. Waller, a dumb shell of a teacher that miraculously got a job teaching the Boy Wonder – er – Boy Blunder, as he would soon be called. Now, he normally would try to trip the teacher up, asking her really stupid questions that she would reply to days later after looking it up on Wikipedia. But sometimes, she wouldn't even bother looking it up, and just tell him he was right from the get-go. No one really disagreed with his clever wordplay, after all he was a thirteen-year-old sophomore, smarter than any of them could ever hope to be. Bet they didn't make mistakes like this one, though.

So. Our favorite little bird was in class, when he got bored with the old material he had already memorized. With a sly smile, he asked,

"If dislike is the opposite of like, would aster be the opposite of disaster? See, instead of things going wrong, they go right." Normally, reusing old material from what he thought up on the job wouldn't have ruined him. But he had forgotten two very, _very _important variable. One, he had skipped grades all the way to sophomore, the level most fifteen-year-olds were at. Artemis was fifteen, and had been going to Gotham Academy for the past six weeks. Actually, make that just one very important variable. Artemis was in the class.

He had realized this after a sharp snort could be heard from the back of the classroom.

"Miss Crock, is there something you find wrong about Mister Grayson's theory?"

"No, no mam."

"Good. Richard, I'll get back to you on that. So I after E except after C, when sounding like…"

When the bell finally rang, signaling the end of the day, Dick darted for the door. But of course, Artemis was blocking it.

"Hey, Dick."

"Hi…um, do I know you…?" he ducked underneath her arms, then quickened his pace on the other side.

"Dick, I'm Artemis, remember? We kind of eat lunch together sometimes, we have a mutual friend, Barbara Gordon?"

"Honestly, never seen you in my life." She grabbed onto his shirt sleeve and pulled him back, roughly pushing him against the wall.

"Don't lie to me." She kept him pinned to the wall with one hand on his shoulder. There was a crowd starting to gather. After they held each other's gaze strongly, murmurs of chants ensued from the crowd. "Fight…fight…fight…" It started to pick up steam. "Fight. Fight. Fight." Until they were all out war-calls, "Fight! Fight! Fight!" Underneath the roars of the growing throng, Artemis whispered,

"If you don't tell me it's true, who I think you are, I'll give them a show."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Then he punched her. Stupid move, sure. But if he didn't do it, he knew she would. And Artemis was good at hand-to-hand combat and thankfully didn't have as much publicity as Robin. So there was no chance of anyone recognizing her. Honestly, her and her arrow-bearing hero persona had the same name. People would have probably caught on already if they knew who the archer was. And Robin, though his previous actions were dumb, he was not. He chose to fight with a completely different style, not using his lithe form, but mimicking Superboy's offensive stance and using it to his advantage. And in all truth, it was a good fight to have watched. Just not for a principal.

It was when they were waiting outside the principal's door together, out of earshot of anyone, that he finally realized there was no need to prolonging the inevitable.

"Fine, it's me." Her eyes lit up with satisfaction.

"Knew it."

He gave a melodramatic sigh, "Well…I guess this means you and Wally are just that much closer."

"What do you mean?"

"He kind of knows…"

"Whoa. Are my ears getting this right? Little goodie-two-shoes [_Is that how you spell that? I honestly have no idea_] Robin actually did something against Overlord Batman's wishes?"

"Not so loud! That's probably who he's talking to right now." He jabbed a thumb at the principal's office.

"Wait, what?"

"Never mind. And that's Daddy Bats, to you."

"So – wait–"

"Yeah. Batman's my dad, and Wally came up with the Daddy Bats nickname, by the way, none of my doing. And that's all you need to know, I swear if you look me up, one day you will come home and there will be a giant whole where your house should be."

Normally she wouldn't have been intimidated, but that _stare_. The boy was younger than her and far shorter than her – but that _stare_. She gulped and nodded.

"Good." He sighed and his eyes took a softer nature, "He's going to kill me when he finds out I, not only gave away my secret ID, but also–

"– got into a fight!" They were in the limo, also dubbed secretly by Wally the Waynemobile, riding on their way back to Wayne Manor.

"I'm sorry, Bruce! I don't know how she found out!"

"Well, I guess you tried…thanks. I understand how hard it is to keep a secret like that. You…performed admirably."

What? Was billionaire Bruce Wayne, the esoteric Dark Knight…thanking him? Despite it all, he smiled. He was _so _feeling the aster.

_AN:_

_It'd be a pretty stupid move not to review…See, me and Batman? We're close. Real close. I doubt you'd want to answer to him._

_And it's 1:42AM, make me happy? =D _


End file.
